Is That?
by Chiggles Grigori
Summary: This is a story I was working on for a language arts project, but I'm wondering if I should give it a before-story, maybe? Feedback, give me it!  In this story isn't the "Daniel Grigori", but just a "Daniel". I love that name.


Watching over the city at a bird's-eye-view was not as amazing as I thought it'd be, though it might have been better if the town was clean, if the water in Number One Pond wasn't polluted. This town was nowhere near quiet at night either; the beeping of car horns and the yelling of 'young adults'. This town was a disappointment to me, and was probably a disappointment to Lend and Jo, too. We soared over the high school, and then all chuckled to ourselves. This high school was nothing special. Not all that big, since it had trailers surrounding the outside of the school, serving as extra classrooms, I'm guessing.

Being disgusted, I hung left, leading my group away from the school and out of the town, to Springvale. In some parts, it seemed to be so much more quiet there, though, in others, I just wanted to go down there and tell the people to "Shut up" myself. I'm sure my colleagues wouldn't mind either.

Again, I lead my group to the more quiet part of Springvale. We all landed near a house that had no lights on, and had a mossy "for sale" sign driven into the ground of it's unkempt front lawn. Rolling back our shoulders, we furled our wings close to our backs, and took a moment to breathe. I then stepped forward, onto the house's path and followed it all the way to the front door. My hand met the doorknob, turned it in both directions, but nothing happened; the door was locked.

Sighing, I turned around and looked directly at Jo, then jerked my thumb over my shoulder, gesturing to the door. "Could you open it pleeeease, Jo-Jo?" I begged, giving her my lop-sided grin. It makes everyone melt.

Jo threw her pony-tail forward and reached to the hair by her neck, pulling out a bobby-pin. Flipping her head back, Jo strode toward the door and knelt in front of the locked doorknob. I turned to Lend as Jo worked on opening the door.

Lend was giving me the "Oh, you think you're cool\" look as he shook his head with a faint smirk on his lips. "Douche," he fake-coughed out.

"Dude, what are you, four?" I asked, then shoved his shoulder in a brotherly manner. Lend shoved back, though harder. We both took turns shoving, each one getting stronger, and less brotherly. After three shoves, I felt a hand on the back of my shirt. It grabbed a fistful and yanked me backward roughly, making me trip and fall flat on my backside.

Seeming to be in a daze, I stayed there, flat on the ground, and looked up at the star-filled sky, pointing out several constellations as I tired to regain thoughts that were more important.

Jo was standing in between Lend and I. Lend was also on the ground, but was on his stomach. I scoffed quietly and closed my eyes. "Is the door open, Jo-Jo?" I asked, though my voice sounded breathless and hoarse.

"Of course I got the freaking door open," Jo snapped back, her voice filled with anger and annoyance. It's not my fault that Lend always got a little too rough...

Lend sat up at the exact same time I did. We both gave each other an icy stare before standing up and heading down the path, toward the now-open door. We both reached the door at the same time. Taking a glance at one another, then back at the door, we both charged forward, though got stuck at the hip, as the doorway wasn't wide enough for two people to fit through. We hip-pushed at each other, though, of course, were both getting nowhere. Soon, I felt a hand pressed against my back, and felt myself falling forward. I threw my arms out in front of myself to catch my fall. Lend landed beside me in the same position, though he looked more amused than angry, like I was.

I shoved myself up off of the floor and began to walk around the house. As I went, I flicked light-switches up and down to see if they worked; they didn't. There was no sign of any recent life in this house. Must've been on the market for a while. The house was still somewhat-furnished; it had couches and coffee-tables that had plastic wrappings on them.

Walking through a dark, empty room, I entered, what seemed to be, another dark, empty room. This one seemed to have a... negative feel to it, though. My fingers trailed along the wall until finding an opening. I leaned forward, and eyed the opening closer-it was an opening to a stairway.

Without a moment's hesitation, I began to hop up the stairs, taking them two at a time. By the time I reached the top of the staircase, the negative-feel grew stronger, but I couldn't put my finger on what was making me feel that way. I continued on down the unfamiliar, unlit hallway of this random house, ready for just about anything to pop out and smack me in the face.

"Daniel," an unfamiliar, eerie voice whispered.

I stopped dead in my tracks, every muscle in my body tensing, the wings on my back burning, aching to unfurl.

"I'm over here, Daniel," the same voice spoke behind me, though, when I whirled around, no one and nothing was there.

Outcast, I thought almost instantly. They were the only things who could be this... this I-see-you-but-you-can't-see-me. They were quick, they were coordinated. They were also blind. They, from what I remember, have blue-almost white-eyes; their pupils are gray, not white. They use their other senses to see. And from how one nearly nailed me in the chest with a starshot, they are pretty damn good at it.

"I know you're an Outcast. Just come out. Fight. Don't hide from me, don't lurk in the shadows with the announcers." Of course, my voice shook with fear, of course The announcers almost always hid in the shadows. They are like video cameras-they record moments people would want to look back to, if they wish it, and lock 'n' seal it away. The Outcasts, on the other hand, were things that didn't choose a side to settle with. Some were to go to Hell, others were to go to Heaven, but they chose too late; they waited until the fighting was done to choose a side. Now, neither Heaven, nor Hell, will accept any one of them.

Surprisingly, the Outcast came out of the shadows. It was holding it's bow, and had a glowing starshot knocked on the string, ready to go.

I sucked in a deep breath and shuffled sideways silently. Outcasts are blind. They cannot see me. It let it's starshot go, it flying passed where I was, only a few seconds ago.

Hah, it missed. Sweat beaded up on my hair line. I was so close to death. but, so was this Outcast. I just needed to get a starshot from it.

It walked forward, it's bow held out in front of it as if it were a shield. If it kept walking in the same direction, it would run into me. If I moved, the starshot would run into my face, killing me. Decisions, decisions.

As the Outcast got closer, I stayed planted to the floor, unmoving, not breathing. When the starshot was inches from my face, I raised my right hand slowly and brought it to a hovering-point around the cylinder. I then closed my hand around it quickly and ripped it off of the bow's arrow. Catching the Outcast off guard, I wound my arm back, and brought the tip-less starshot arrow down on the Outcast's chest.

It screamed a loud, piercing scream for about three seconds before collapsing to the floor and disintegrating completely.

I whirled around as I heard frantic footsteps clammering up the stairs. There's more of these things...? I just stood there frozen without a plan in mind.

Finally, two shadows figures made it to the top of the stairs. They were the same height as Jo and Lend. They even had the shape of them in the shadowy light.

"I think we should go," muttered Lend.

"Hah! Where could we go? There's nowhere else left for us!" Jo screeched in her female, high-pitched voice.

"Heaven is always the option," I offered. I had to admit I was a bit breathless from only handling one of those Outcasts, but it was scary being in a life-or-death situation. I'm just happy I chose life.

"We should go. We don't belong here, and we've been here long enough, don't you agree, Jo?" Lend inquired, nudging Jo's arm lightly.

"Yeah. We've nothing left to do down here."

"Heaven it is then?" I asked, feeling as though this journey was long overdue.

"Heaven it is," Lend and Jo mumbled in unison.

And so, we all went. We exited the house in an orderly fashion (if you call breaking a window and jumping out an orderly fashion), and unfurled our wings. We took the journey, and it was all worthwhile.


End file.
